Jane answered all the “where do you keep” questions, washed pans as they were done being used, and kept Hal out from underfoot. Seriously, the man was like a three-year-old in the big kitchen, wanting to lick bowls and steal bacon. One would think he knew not to get close to her brothers while they wielded knives.
Nigel had the good sense to anchor down one of the barstools at the island. He asked quiet leading questions to keep the conversations going. Taggart used mad ninja-stealth to film the cooking. Their videos were to be Pittsburgh’s voice on Earth; her family’s pain had to be recorded and shared.
It reminded her of the viceroy standing grief-stricken by the river. The oni had kidnapped his bride. And Boo might know where she was being held.
On the pretense that she wanted help setting the great table, Jane got Boo alone in the main dining room. Last night they’d eaten in turns in the kitchen, as Jane’s everyday table only sat her mother and brothers comfortably. Jane’s family had moved on without Boo, unconsciously sizing their lives to six siblings, not seven. Luckily the addition of Joey, Hal, Nigel and Taggart helped keep it from being painfully obvious to Boo.
Jane unlocked the windows and rolled them up to air out the room. A summer thunderstorm was blowing in; the wind was picking up. It caught the sheers and made them dance in the gloaming. She would have to close the windows quickly if it started to rain. “You went blueberry picking with Alton?”
“Berry picking. Berry eating. Tree climbing.” Boo’s voice came from up high.
“It was so nice to go in any direction I wanted.” Boo stood on the railing of the second floor balcony that overlooked the main dining room, arms outstretched to feel the wind. “No one to stop me but me.”
“Like hell! Get down from there! What the hell do you think you’re doing up there?”
“I’ve always liked being high.” Boo walked barefoot quickly along the railing to the bannister, making Jane stutter with fear and anger. “I’m getting down!” And she came sliding down the bannister like she was six again.
Was it a tengu thing to be high? Was Boo afraid that being too much tengulike upset Jane? Well, it did. Jane didn’t want Boo to know it.
“You’re just like your brothers,” Jane focused back on the windows so Boo couldn’t see her face. “Trying to give me a heart attack with Kryskill craziness.”
Boo hugged her from the back, pressing her face against Jane’s shoulder blade. “It’s so hard to be stuck on the ground,” she whispered. “It’s like I’ve been buried alive.”
So it was a tengu thing. Cope with it, Jane, cope with it. Jane took a deep breath. “You need to set a good example for Joey. At least until we can get him back to his aunt and uncle.”
Boo whimpered softly. “We can’t. They’re dead. The oni killed them.”
Jane breathed out a curse. “I thought—the way he talks—”
“He doesn’t know. I haven’t told him. The oni wanted to capture the whole family. With just Joey, they could only make copies of him. If they’d gotten the entire family, they would have taken one or two apart to see how they were put together. I’ve seen Kajo do it with fish at the hatchery; shatter animals down and put them together differently. Make monsters.”
Boo trembled, her voice breaking. “But they killed all of Joey’s family. That’s why they made me tengu. With a copy, they had someone they could sh-sh-sh-shatter…”
“You’re safe!” Jane turned and gathered her into a hug. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. You’re safe!”
Only after the tears were dried, the table wiped free of dust, a trolley of the good dishes and silverware wheeled out and placed on the table did Jane remembered why she’d gotten her sister alone. By then the cooks were finishing up the food and Nigel was bandaging Hal.
Why had the oni taken Tinker? To shatter her down? Jane felt sick at the idea.
“Do you know where any oni camps are?” Jane asked quietly and at the farthest point from the kitchen she could get Boo.
“Not anymore. Danni made Kajo move all the camps because Pure Radiance came to the Westernlands. A deadly game of hide and seek, she called it. All the camps that I knew of were abandoned. The hatchery was the only one of Kajo’s that stayed in place. I don’t know if Lord Tomtom moved his; I never knew where they were in the first place. Kajo and Lord Tomtom never got along.”
Jane breathed out in disappointment. At least she didn’t have to decide what to do if Boo did know where Tinker was being held.
The food cooked, they sat down to eat. Hal tried to start before blessing and both Jane and her mother slapped him. It was a wonder he’d survived her family for so many years.
It was all good and happy until the last crumb of the blueberry turnovers. Family tradition said that the youngest three had to clear the dishes, generally because they’d been spared from having a cook a dish. Guy bussed the table with the ease of a trained waiter. Boo scrambled to keep up, wanting to help but without the years of experience. Joey carried a plate at a time into the kitchen with exaggerated care. Everyone else leaned back from the table and drank equal parts of fresh milk and strong Assam tea. (After years of being smacked, Hal stopped asking for coffee after meals. Nigel and Taggart seemed to relish the tea as much as her brothers.)
With deceptive calm, her mother lifted up her cup and said, “Mitsy Barker called me this afternoon. She said Nigel was on the noon news. Something about a giant river monster?”
The table went silent and her family all stared at Jane.
Telephone, telegraph, tell a Barker.
To be fair, Jane had to expect someone to tell her family after warning the entire city. She was really hoping, though, it would be after she killed it. She wanted it to be like rescuing Boo; the Kryskill family circus wouldn’t know what Jane was planning until after all the shooting was over.
Jane spread her hands. “We’re filming dangerous stuff that lives in the backyard like we always do. It’s kind of like a saurus that lives in the river. It’s not like river sharks because it doesn’t stay in the water. You could call it a jumpfish with legs.”
“You’re going after the namazu?” Boo cried with obvious horror.
Jane inwardly cringed. She’d forgotten that Boo probably knew exactly what they were hunting. Nor could she smack her baby sister to keep her quiet. She tried glaring at her instead.
“The what?” Alton asked.
“The namazu!” the two kids cried.
“The god fish!” Joey stood on his toes and held his arms wide as possible.
“It is a very big, crocodilelike fish thing!” Jane stated loudly to override the kids. “Hal and I have been dealing with shit like this for years.”
Which was a mistake as her brothers all turned to Hal. While Hal could host-dazzle Maynard, he was intimidated by her family. “It is a smidge larger than our typical fare.” He turned to her and saw her face. “I-I-I have all confidence that Jane can handle this. Given a big enough gun and a hunting stand and the monster call.”